Where's the snow? Flurries in forecast, but precipitation has been elusive

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Although snow flurries are in Sunday’s forecast, Amarillo has yet to see its first snowflake of the season, joining many areas throughout the middle of the country that have gone nearly the entire year without snowfall.

Amarillo last received snow March 2 when 0.2 of an inch fell, said Stephen Bilodeau, meteorologist for the Amarillo National Weather Service.

The last snowfall of at least an inch came Feb. 12, he said.

Bilodeau said a cold front is expected to sweep through the region Saturday night that would drop Sunday’s expected high temperature to 33 degrees. That temperature could drop to around 15 degrees at night and a wind gusts around 35 mph could make it feel as though temperatures are in the single digits, he said.

“This is just a little shot of cold air, the first real one,” he said. “This will be the coldest temperatures we’ve had in a while.”

Amarillo typically gets its first snowfall around the end of October, but this year the city could miss out on snow for the entire Christmas season, Bilodeau said.

“If there’s nothing with (Sunday’s weather), we’re going to go at least another week without any snow,” he said. “You never know, that one in March might be the last one for the whole year.”

Many cities in the Midwest also haven’t seen any decent snow this season — and some are even setting records for the number of days without it, in part because last winter was so mild and any precipitation that does fall gets soaked into the drought-parched land.

On Thursday, Des Moines matched a record set in 1889 when it hit its 277th consecutive day without measurable snowfall, according to the National Weather Service.

In Nebraska, Omaha recorded its 285th consecutive snowless day Wednesday — breaking its previous record set in 2006 — and Lincoln extended its record on Thursday to 297 days without measurable snow. Lincoln’s former record was 295 snow-free days in 2004.

Chicago and Milwaukee are just days away from breaking their records. Other areas also are either setting or close to records, while some cities are far off their usual snowfall totals.

The Amarillo National Weather Service did not have data for the record of most days between snowfalls.

National Weather Service program manager Jim Keeney said the country’s drought conditions this year are to blame for snow not sticking to the ground.

“At this point it doesn’t matter what falls from the sky, snow or rain,” he said. “To get precipitation would be beneficial for a chunk of the country.”

It would be particularly beneficial in Amarillo, which has received .02 of an inch of precipitation since Oct. 1, Bilodeau said.

That lack of precipitation could hurt winter wheat crops that are primarily used for cattle grazing because there would be no soil moisture to help the plants develop a strong root system, said J.D. Ragland, Texas AgriLife extension agent for Randall County.

“Those cattle are out there grazing and basically their grazing, and because there’s no root system they’re pulling out the entire plant,” he said. “It’s being pretty detrimental to our wheat crop.”

Ragland said rainfall would be more beneficial to crops right now than snowfall because it would soak into the soil better, but any precipitation would help not only the wheat crops, but also establish moisture in the soil for spring crops such as corn, cotton and grain sorghum.

He said Amarillo’s dry weather has been caused by a series of prolonged high-pressure systems have cut off moisture from the Gulf of Mexico, and the country is in a neutral phase of El Nino and La Nina climate patterns.

“It’s not really one or the other,” he said. “The pattern’s just been a dry pattern we’ve been in, especially in the last two months. ... Those are normally dry months anyway, but with the high-pressure systems, it’s really dry.”

But the weather hasn’t been as dry as last year, Bilodeau said.

Amarillo has received 11.79 inches of rain, which is nearly eight inches below average but is still more than double the record low of 5.79 inches that fell last year, Bilodeau said. This would be the fifth driest year on record if the city doesn’t receive any additional precipitation this year, he said.

Not only is 2012 Amarillo going to be one of it’s driest years on record, it is also on pace to be the hottest year on record, Bilodeau said. He said the average temperature to date is 62.4 degrees, compared to last year’s 59.7 degrees last year.

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